Dedicated to my late brave, beautiful and silly mummy, Debra Ross. I love you mumster.

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Category archive for television

Because archives are so much easier than having just hundreds of posts on the home page. I learned that the hard way.

It’s a personal pineapple

Screenshot from Life

Sunrise, Spring and September musingS

As I sit here at the Boatdeck Cafe I can’t help but remember that I ordered a tea instead of a coffee to start the week off right, however I forgot that tea doesn’t have the same effect on my brain as coffee when it comes to producing disjointed rambling weblog posts that have little real content or value, perhaps other than to assure you dear reader that you are a more interesting person than I, or at the least can express yourself with wittier prose. If after reading other Rubenerd Blog "rambling posts" this post seems bland by comparison, especially if you compare it, I apologise and advise you to microwave your left shoe for a few minutes to get your fill of random, pointless observable fun.

ASIDE: Please don’t put your shoe in the microwave. Okay you can put your shoe in the microwave, but if anyone catches you, don’t mention me or this website. I don’t want to get involved or be associated with your podiatric sado-masacism.

Sunrise weather map for today

It’s the first of September, and you know what that means? Yes, that’s right, it means that the last number in reverse order ISO dates changes back to a 01, specifically 2008.09.01. Sometimes I’m so exciting it’s just hard to contain myself.

Pointless number adventures aside for a moment (I’m sorry I know you all love them), the first of September is important because here in the Southern Hemisphere it’s officially the first day of spring, which means winter is over! According to an ABC news report I watched last week, it has been one of Adelaide’s coldest winters on record, and as you all know if it’s on television, it has to be true!

Unfortunately it sure doesn’t feel like spring right now, the weather outside is dark and overcast and the wind is strong and chilly. How misleading to call this weather spring when clearly it’s colder than a refrigerator out here, though decidedly less tasty. People in Alaska have absolutely no idea what we’re going through; Canadians, Europeans and Japanese would be equally clueless.

Thanks to our fantastic new digital USB TV tuner that could, we watched the morning Sunrise show on Channel 7 and saw how our current home compared to others around the country. I guess Adelaide doesn’t look as dreary as Melbourne this morning, though decidedly less warm and bright as Sydney and Brisbane!

Sunrise live weather image of Adelaide

Sunrise live weather image of Melbourne

Sunrise live weather image of Sydney

Sunrise live weather image of Brisbane

Having lived in all four of these cites at some point in my life, I can say with confidence that Adelaide has sure felt the coldest out of the four so far. Perhaps it’s because I’m in my early 20s now compared to when I was 0-9 when I lived in those places, and my poor, frail old bones just can’t take it as well as they used to. Again, nobody could possibly imagine what I’m going through right now, because nobody knows… the trouble I’ve seen… nobody knows… my bones.

Getting back to Sunrise though, I think it’s hilarious how sometimes I’m really in the mood for listening to the banter on morning television, and sometimes I wake up early and am so irritated to see their happy faces I want to punch the television… which would be a shame because my television is my computer screen. I guess punching an LCD would hurt a lot less than punching a Cathode Ray Tube though: for starters an LCD isn’t even solid material anyway right? So I’d be okay, right?

I wish I could be that energetic first thing in the morning!

So it’s the beginning of spring, let’s hope it starts feeling like it is soon! For what it’s worth, my MacBook Pro is still performing whisper quietly after I replaced the fan on the right hand side: I’m thinking come summer I’ll need it.

And now if you’d excuse me, I have to figure out why our real estate agent claims our latest rent payment didn’t go through when I have a printed statement from my credit union clearly showing otherwise; I have to get a replacement Medicare card because my old one started to crack along the magnetic strip; I need to get a new Proof of Age card because my address has changed; and finally I need to get in contact with the doctors and medical insurance companies in Malaysia and Singapore to get more details the university here is requesting. Perhaps I will order that coffee after all!

Spring has sprung,
The grass has riz;
I wonders where
My 8 port surged protected powerboard is

I have James Woods!

James Woods with Peter Griffin

Someone to care for, To be there for;
I have James Woods!

Someone to do for, Mortal through for;
You have James Woods!

Someone to share, Joy and despair with;
Whichever betides you;
Life becomes a chore, Unless you’re living for…

Someone to tend to, Be a friend to;
I have James Woods!

Someone to strive for, Do or die for;
You have James Woods!

It’s true, We two,
Have a likewise point of view;

‘Coz James Woods has you,
And I have James Woods… too!

If you’ve had your fill of James Woods, may I suggest you build a barbecue pit instead.

Homer Simpson’s barbecue pit

Mmm, that is one FINE looking barbecue pit.

So why doesn’t MINE look like that?!

Hey Joe, what’s your handicap?

The Hinton train disaster revisited


Follow up from original post: The Hinton Train Disaster

Sometimes when you have a weblog you stray from what you normally type about and end up learning something in the process. In my case, last year I posted about the Hinton train disaster that occurred in Canada in 1986. Even though I watch a lot of disaster shows on both Discover Channel and National Geographic, I must admit that this particular program left a real impression on me.

Looking back now compared to some of the other disasters I’ve watched documentaries about, this one in particular seemed on the surface to be so tragically simple: a freight locomotive failing to break in the designated overtaking side rails resulting in a head-on collision with a passenger train. The resulting investigation afterward though showed the problem was anything but simple: whether it was into driver fatigue resulting from unpredictable and drawn out shifts, signals that were neither large nor clear enough, the inherent risks involved with having freight and passenger trains sharing a single railway line…

I guess the reason this particular documentary has really stuck with me over any of the others was beacuse of the human element. An aeroplane with a failing engine or faulty rudder, or a train crashing as a result of bad weather are clearly no less tragic than a head on collision with a train, but in these cases it’s safe to say they’re outside human control; I guess the old adage was “an act of God”. By contrast, the Hinton train collision was entirely the result of humans, which has brought up more questions since I watched the show. With all out technology, are we losing or forgetting the human element? With all our sophisticated machines nowadays, are we forgetting that humans are still ultimately the ones controlling them?

I’ve received a lot of feedback in the form of comments and emails from people as a result of my original post, including a very friendly post from Mrs Heyd who’s husband survived the crash.

Who would have thought a quick dinner break on a weekday would have such a huge effect on how I view the world?

DCI Tom Barnaby in Midsomer Murders

dcibarnaby.jpg

As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there!
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d stay away!

Kuala Lumpur International Airport WiFi is sweet!

So I was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA to people in the know) for a long drawn out reason which I won’t attempt to explain here, and I found myself trying their free WiFi access. Given my experience with TMNet’s WiFi at the Starbucks coffee shops here I was a bit skeptical about how good it was going to be. As it turns out it was faster than out DSL at home!

As you would know if you read this site in any manner resembling regularity I love screenshots, so here are some from my WiFi adventures :D.

Here’s the initial welcome screen when I logged on for free on my MacBook Pro:

klia_mac_thumb.png

Here’s the welcome screen when I booted into Haruhi KDE FreeBSD ;):

Haruhi KDE FreeBSD

And what better thing to do on free WiFi network in a Malaysian airport but listen to Whole Wheat Radio?

klia_wholewheatradio_thumb.png

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